Ireland's only wildlife hospital seeks new home following objections
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The team behind the only wildlife hospital in Ireland say they are "heartbroken" at being forced to leave their site in Co Meath as a result of local opposition to the facility.
Wildlife Rehabilitation Ireland (WRI) is appealing for help in finding a new home once again after efforts to create a permanent purpose-built hospital dedicated to sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife in Mornington were thwarted by objections to their planning application.
The facility that helped around 2,500 wild animals during its time operating at its temporary location at Garlow Cross near Navan between February 2021 and December 2021 has been unable to treat animals since and now faces an uncertain future.
In late 2021 the hospital secured a new lease at a former driving range, on the banks of the River Boyne in East Meath, and applied to Meath County Council for retention of their assets but the application received a number of submissions against the plans.
"We ran for the year of 2021 over in Garlow Cross, then we moved to Mornington in February 2022 and we haven't been allowed to open," said WRI education and media manager Aoife McPartlin.
"We are set up and ready to go but can't take in an animal. It's a very small team that we have and it's a colossal effort that goes into it so it's heartbreaking.
"We are looking for a new premises now, we are in discussion with a few people, we are praying something works out."
Meath County Council responded to the WRI's request for the retention of specially converted portable buildings and fencing on the site, stating they would not consider a decision on the matter due to the area being a special area of conservation, and subsequently referred the application to An Bord Pleanála. However, Ms McPartlin said they have given up the fight to remain there and will not be putting their case before the planning authority.
"We just want to get his hospital up and running, we have been trying to do it for eight years now and we just thought we are not even going to try and fight it because it would take too long and it would be too expensive and we mightn't win anyway," she said.
"We have pleaded with Meath County Council for help to find a site, we told them we want to stay in Meath and we think it would be really good for the county as well.
"We have an education centre for vets and an education centre for the public. It's very disappointing and disheartening that we are stuck in this limbo."
On the whole, the hospital had been welcomed by the community in East Meath, according to the education manager.
"The majority of people in the locality were excited to have us there, we had already been in the local schools who have really embraced us," she said.
"Some of the submissions said that they thought we would be impacting negatively on the area in terms of biodiversity which is not the case, we had already done the environmental impact assessment before we even went onto the site.
"Others mentioned they thought we'd cause traffic jams and there was even some in there that had absolutely nothing to do with us about drone activity which we have no idea what that is about."
Ms McPartlin says the plan is to eventually build a state-of-the-art teaching hospital, to help save the lives of thousands of wildlife species, as they did in their make-shift location in Garlow Cross, which would include isolation units, intensive care, and high dependency units, reception, outdoor enclosures, and aviaries.
"The site at Garlow Cross was a temporary measure to alleviate the pressure of the rehabilators nationwide," she said. "We were hoping that if we could open this temporary hospital that it would almost prove to the county council and government bodies that this was such a necessary thing for the country. We are one of the only countries in Europe that doesn't have one.
"We opened up in Garlow Cross and before we knew it we were absolutely inundated, we opened in February and closed in December and in that time took in 2,500 animals. The numbers were astronomical and if we are really honest about it we really had this juggernaut that kind of ran us over in the end because ultimately it wasn't the hospital that we wanted, it was just a temporary measure and it just got way busier than we could have envisaged.
"We had every county councillor, every politician, you name it, they all came to visit us, they all thought it was amazing then they all left again and did absolutely nothing. Minister of State for heritage and electoral reform Malcolm Noonan did approve funding for a particular project but it was a drop in the ocean compared to what's needed.
During their eleven months in operation, the team treated an array of wildlife. In 2021, the Baron of Dunsany Randal Plunkett offered his land to release the rescued animals back into their natural habitats on the 1,600 acres around Dunsany Castle.
"We got everything in the door from the tiniest little shrew all the way up to peregrine falcons, barn owls, badgers, foxes, deer, you name it, they came through the door," Ms McPartlin explained.
"We even have otters in Dunsany, Lord Dunsany would be quite a close collaborator with us, he allows us to use his estate for the final stage of the animal's rehabilitation.
"We’ve had a huge amount of hedgehogs and a huge amount of foxes and they would probably be the most common mammal. In terms of the overall number of patients it would probably be birds."
Meath County Council has been contacted for comment.